Question Repeating (or Question Piping) allows you to repeat a question based on answer options selected (or not selected) from a question on a previous page.
For example, if you are asking respondents about brands that they are familiar with, you may want to ask the same follow-up question for each selected brand. Question Repeating is perfect for this scenario.
Setup
To set up question repeating:
- Edit the target question (the question you wish to repeat). This question must be on a later page than the question that you will be sourcing answers from.
- Access the Piping/Repeat tab.
- Select the source question you wish to use in repeating from the Repeat this question for each answer from the following question dropdown menu.
- Indicate whether you would like to Repeat based on the selected answers or Repeated based on the answers not selected.
- Click Save Question when you are finished.
- Within your question title you will probably want to display the source question option for each repetition. For example, the below highlighted portions of the question were automatically populated using a merge code.
In general, this can be accomplished by using the [question("piped title")] merge code which you can copy and paste from this tutorial if you wish. This merge code is also available in the merge code dropdown menu within the editor toolbar as demonstrated below.
During survey taking, the merge code will be replaced with the answer title of the source question.
If you would prefer to use the reporting value of the answer, the merge code [question("piped value")] should be used instead. These merge codes are listed on the Piping/Repeat tab of your question for your reference. You can copy the merge codes from here to the question title!
Learn about repeating questions based on unselected items.
Compatible Questions
The source question can be one of the following question types:
Piping into Rows and Columns
If the target question is a table, you can Pipe Into Rows of the table (this is question piping as the rows of the table are a question). This is the most common use of piping in a table. You can also Pipe Into Columns of a table (this is equivalent to option piping).
Compatible Target Questions for Piping Into Rows
- Radio Button Grid
- Star Rating Grid
- Drag & Drop Ranking
- Ranking Grid
- Checkbox Grid
- Dropdown Menu List
- Textbox List
- Continuous Sum
- Dropdown Menu Grid
- Textbox Grid
Compatible Source Questions for Piping Into Rows
Compatible Target Questions for Piping Into Columns
Compatible Source Questions for Piping Into Columns
Making edits to your question repeating setup
If the repeated question has collected data, you will not be able to edit the source question in your question repeating setup. This is because doing so can irreparably corrupt your data. Instead, we recommend that you disable the question and recreate the question with the new piping source you wish to use.
FAQ
How are special setting options such as Not applicable, Other, None of the above treated in question repeating?
NA, Other, etc. will not be included in question repeating. If you wish to override this you can do so within the answer option on the source question. Click the pencil icon to edit the option and scroll to the bottom of the Settings tab and change the Always Exclude from Piping to No.
Can I exclude an answer option from being repeated?
You sure can! If you wish to exclude an answer from being repeated you can do so within the answer option on the source question. Click the pencil icon to edit the option and scroll to the bottom of the Settings tab and change the Always Exclude from Piping to Yes.
My repeated questions are being alphabetized. Can I change this?
Repeated questions will always be alphabetized. There is not a way to change the order of repeated questions at this time. Check out our tutorial on Alternatives to Piping.
Can I set up logic off of an repeated question?
While there's not a built-in way to achieve this there is a workaround!
Troubleshooting
Are you having trouble selecting a question as your source question? There are two possible reasons as to why your question would not be showing up as your source question:
- The question you are trying to pipe from is not compatible.
The only compatible question types for source questions at this time are: - The question you are trying to use as your source is not on a prior survey page.
Source questions for question repeating must be on a previous page.
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Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 05/02/2016
@Amanda: We have a couple of scripts in our scripting documentation to help you get started:
http://script.surveygizmo.com/help/article/link/conditional-piping-from-radiogrid-to-radiogrid
http://script.surveygizmo.com/help/article/link/conditional-piping-from-grid-to-grid
http://script.surveygizmo.com/help/article/link/conditional-piping-from-radiogrid-to-checkbox
I hope this helps!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Amanda on 05/02/2016
Hello, it would be really helpful to be able to pipe in response options from a grid-in question into a future grid-in question. I see that both radio buttons and checkboxes are options for piping here, but can't figure out how to pipe from a grid to a grid. Could someone assist, and/or let us know when this feature will be available? Thanks!
Admin
— Nathan Sollenberger on 09/09/2015
Whoops! Typo in my reply — I meant to say that page 7 contains an example of *question* piping and row piping. There is an example of page piping in that survey, but it's on page 8 and 9.
Cheers! Nate
Admin
— Nathan Sollenberger on 09/09/2015
@Hillary — Great question! Bri is out so I thought I'd hop in and try to help answer.
Question Piping sounds like a great solution, and will accomplish the "repeating" for you automatically. In a nutshell, you would create a single "template" question on page 2, and set up piping in that question. The piping will then repeat your template question as many times as necessary when a respondent is taking the survey.
To see a working example of this, click the link at the top of this article to "Add this survey to your account", and check out pages 6 and 7. Page 7 contains the "template" question (actually two; one showing page piping and another showing row piping, which works identically to question piping), and also shows an example of using the [question("piped title")] merge code. Edit these questions and look in the "Piping/Repeat" tab to see how this was set up. I hope this helps!
— Hilary on 09/07/2015
Hi again Bri,
I have read over the documentation, but am not sure about this scenario. It seems like one of the obvious ones, but I'm not parsing the instructions, sorry! I'd like to do a question like this made up example:
Which of these hobbies have you heard of?
(Check all that apply)
A. Biking
B. Spelunking
C. Cowtipping
D. Boogie boarding
E. Boxcar racing
Page 2:
For each topic, select the statements that apply to you:
1. [A, "Biking", if selected] (Check all that apply)
A. I'm a pro
B. I'm interested
C. Sounds crazy
2. [B, "Spelunking", if selected] (Check all that apply)
A. I'm a pro
B. I'm interested
C. Sounds crazy
{Repeat for C-E, if selected}
I know I can get the result I want by creating a question for each hobby and using display logic to send people only to the hobbies that apply to them, but I was hoping to use piping to avoid the redundancy if possible. (It would making the possibility of editing the question and option text in the future *a lot* easier).
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 07/16/2015
@Pierre: Thanks for taking a look at our documentation! This would be great! I'll be sure to pass this along to our development team for future improvements.
In the meantime, we do have a way to use images as answer options in a checkbox question which you can then pipe from.
https://help.surveygizmo.com/help/article/link/use-images-as-answer-options
Thanks for your feedback!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Neediz on 07/16/2015
Why Image (Multi select) cannot be piped like Checkboxes?